The rivalry between the Dodgers and Padres took another notch on Saturday night courtesy of Mookie Betts.
Betts made a dive in midfield to take a hit from Padres’ Tommy Pham in the ninth inning and claim a 2-0 win in Los Angeles. Betts caught Pham’s Line Drive in the palm of his glove, then grabbed it with both hands before he could fall onto the lawn. The catch withstood video review.
Statcast put the catch probability at 10 percent.
“I just kind of turned black,” Betts told reporters on MLB.com. “I just knew that when the ball blew up, I had to catch it.”
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The game ended another tense affair between the top two teams in the National League West. Emotions were hot for most of Saturday after Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw and Padre’s utility man Jurickson Profar cursed each other with swear words in the fourth inning. Kershaw was upset that Profar hit catcher Austin Barnes’s glove with a late blow and pulled a catcher’s interference call.
The benches were emptied at the Friday night opener after Dodger’s reliever Dennis Santana hit the Padres’ Jorge Mateo with a pitch in the 10th inning. LA went on to win that game 11-6 in 12.
Kershaw overtook the Padres ‘Yu Darvish over six innings in Game 2 and also drove a base-laden walk in the Dodgers’ first run. Justin Turner added insurance with a solo home run in the ninth inning.
These teams will complete the series on Sunday at Petco Park. Another high-level pitching matchup is on the agenda: Trevor Bauer for the Dodgers and Blake Snell for the Padres.
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